Lando Norris expressed satisfaction with his bold strategy during today’s Chinese GP Sprint qualifying session in Shanghai, where he clinched pole position after a crucial final lap that was initially disallowed but later reinstated.
After posting the second-fastest time in the first round of Sprint qualifying, Norris remained within the top five as rain began to fall during SQ2.
He was the first driver to venture out on intermediates in the wet final round. However, on his first lap, he ran wide at turn 1, and his penultimate time was invalidated for exceeding track limits at turn 16.
Despite these setbacks, Norris delivered his best performance on his final lap, securing provisional pole position. Nevertheless, this lap too was nullified because he was deemed to have crossed the white line with all four tires at the final corner just before beginning his flying lap.
The FIA annulled both the lap where he went off track and the subsequent lap, a standard procedure to prevent drivers from gaining an unfair advantage in exit speed by disregarding the final turn.
In this instance, race control conducted a thorough review and concluded that Norris had not gained any advantage by running wide. Andrea Stella, McLaren’s team principal, estimated that Norris had actually lost around three-tenths of a second by going off track.
Had Norris gained an advantage or if the pre-race regulations explicitly stated that lap times would be invalidated, the deletion would have remained in effect. However, given the circumstances, race control promptly reinstated Norris’s time manually.
Stella explained to Sky Sports F1, “If he had gone off at the last corner, it would have implications for the following lap. Essentially, Lando lost almost three-tenths because he went off at the previous corner.
“The following lap is the pole lap and that lap is completely clean so there’s no problem at all,” he added. “It was reinstated by the FIA themselves, because you go off out of this corner, you launch at a much lower speed.
Initially, the ruling positioned Norris to start from ninth place tomorrow. However, once race control reversed the penalty, the restored time of 1:57.940s surpassed Lewis Hamilton’s next-best time by over a second.
Reflecting on his performance, Norris shared with the media in parc fermé at the conclusion of the session, “The last lap was all-or-nothing. The first two I aborted on both.”
“It was getting wetter and wetter so actually the conditions for the final two laps were a lot worse than the second lap at least,” he added. “I was a little bit nervous that I made a few mistakes, started to aquaplane quite a bit.
“But it was good fun!”, he continued. “It gets your heart going. And to end up on top is exactly what we wanted.
“[Pole] is a bit of a surprise, but I’m very happy the team have done a good job, the car is feeling good, and so am I. And it’s paying off.”
Norris attributed McLaren’s success today to thorough preparation. With Formula 1 returning to the Shanghai International Circuit for the first time in five years, it marked the debut of the current ground effect cars.
“We did some of our homework this morning,” Norris elaborated. “We did some consecutive laps to try and understand but depends what the weather is. There’s still a chance of rain tomorrow.”
Acknowledging the uncertainty ahead, Norris confessed, “If it’s like this then I think the chances are relatively decent, but the race is still very different to qualifying.
“I’m sure everyone’s going to catch up a bit tomorrow, but the pace is good whether it’s wet or dry and I think we’re in a good position.”
Norris’ teammate, Oscar Piastri, will commence from eighth on the grid. This position stems from an issue with his gearbox, which shifted into neutral as he exited the chicane on the pivotal final flying lap due to wheel spin on the wet track.
